1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector and a method for producing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior art automotive wiring harness, as shown in FIG. 14, has a plurality of main wires "a". A plurality of branch wires "b" are branched from intermediate positions of the main wires "a" and extend to a variety of electric or electronic devices. The branch wires "b" are connected with blade-type terminal fittings "d" of a joint connector "c" and also connected with crimping terminal fittings "f" of a branching connector "e". Both terminal fittings "d" and "f" are connected by connecting the two connectors "c" and "e".
In the prior art branching construction of FIG. 14, one branch wire "b" is branched from one main wire "a". In recent years, there has been a demand for a mode of wire arrangement different from the prior art construction of FIG. 14. The demanded mode is shown in FIG. 15 and has an arrangement path of a main wire "g" cut. Two branch wires "h" are extended from this cut portion and are connected with an equipment "j". The two branch wires "h" are not simply branched from the one main wire "g" in this prior art arrangement. Rather, one conductive path extends from one part of the cut main wire "g" to the outward branch wire "h" and returns to the other of the cut main wire "g" via the equipment "j" and the return branch wire "h".
The prior art method for branching one branch wire "b" from one main wire "a", as shown in FIG. 14 cannot be employed for the prior arrangement of FIG. 15. However, it may be considered efficient to produce the prior art arrangement of FIG. 15 by making the wire "g" longer than other main wires "k". Thus a lengthened portion may be used as the branch wires "h" that then are branched from the main path and extended to the equipment "j". However, according to this possible method, the lengthened portion "h" sticks out from a bundle of a plurality of main wires "g", "k" forming the wiring harness. This complicates a process of producing the wiring harness and causes a problem that the wire "h" sticking out of the wire bundle gets caught while the wiring harness is handled.
The present invention was developed in view of the above problem and an object thereof is to avoid problems in producing and handling a wiring harness when one conductive path which is branched from a main path of the wiring harness and in particular returns thereto again after passing via branch paths is constructed.